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When we went behind on 28 minutes to a Podolski goal, I really feared the worst and suspected that we were going to be well beaten by the Germans in this final.

At half-time, Alan Shearer and I were very assertive in the dressing room and demanded that the players improve in the second-half. We got an improvement and then some!

I also decided to substitute Gary Cahill as he was having a bit of a nightmare. Also coming off was Aaron Lennon who reacted poorly to my half-time talk. I introduced the young Phil Jones and the hard working James Milner to the team.

In the second-half, Darren Bent pulled us level on 55 minutes. He then went and scored another on 79 minutes and I honestly thought we had the game won.

Typical Germany though as they went straight up the other end and scored. I think what frustrated me most is that I was trying to tighten things up tactically to contain Germany and to do a 'backs to the wall' type job for the last ten minutes but the Germans scored before my tactics even kicked in. So frustrating!

I was expecting extra time at this point, so figured I would keep one sub and not make that last sub in the 90 minutes. We were, at this point, getting overrun in midfield with Lampard looking really tired.

Unbelievably, on 90 minutes, Wayne Rooney popped up with the winner! This time we really had won it. I changed things tactically to contain Germany for the last seconds of the match and also brought on Huddlestone to replace Lampard to tighten up the midfield. We held on in those final seconds to record victory over Germany! We won Euro 2012!

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Nice thread (despite England winning something). I've grown a little bored with my saves - as well as frustrated with how mediocre Craig Levein has made us - so I think I'm going to start a Scotland game. I've never started a dedicated International game before so should be an interesting challenge...

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James Milner in the Euro 2012 dream team, yet only gets on the bench for Crouchson. Yep, you've got Hodgson to a tea.

Sensing you aren't a Hodgson fan then!

Good win BTW

Thanks.

Nice thread (despite England winning something). I've grown a little bored with my saves - as well as frustrated with how mediocre Craig Levein has made us - so I think I'm going to start a Scotland game. I've never started a dedicated International game before so should be an interesting challenge...

Do you holiday between friendlies / matches?

Should be interesting to see how far you can take Scotland!

Yes, I holiday when matches are a month or more apart. I usually holiday to the next squad selection (a useful option).

Congrats on winning Euro 2012,I'm expecting you to do well with that World Cup Qualifying group.

Yes, I should do well really!

Maybe it gives me a chance to mix things up and start experimenting with a younger squad and planning for the future.

Congrats on the Euro 2012 Cup! That World Cup Qualifying group looks like its in your favour as well.

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England Euro 2012 champions? FM is broken, I want a refund. Good job, entertaining thread here, with so many "zero to hero" stories it's refreshing to read about someone starting at the very top, international management is also an interesting twist.

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I had it in mind that I would make major changes for the World Cup qualifiers and start throwing younger players into the team. However, I wasn't prepared to risk much away to Ukraine in the first game and I actually realised that many of the younger players I had in mind aren't quite ready in my opinion. They may well be ready in another year, just in time for the World Cup, but right now it feels quite risky to be throwing these players in the deep end.

In the end, the main change was to drop a few older players out of the team. Frank Lampard was the biggest name that I left out with the press speculating that his England career had come to an end. In came a few younger players such as Jack Wilshere, Jack Rodwell and Danny Welbeck. Slow and steady changes. Steven Gerrard, who I feel may well have one more tournament left in him, was named as captain.

We just edged a tight game in in Donetsk. Not the most convincing of performances but at least we came away with a result.

This was probably our hardest game in the qualifiers, so now we've got this out of the way, there might be a bit more space to experiment with the line-up.

0

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A stroll in the park. Never in danger of anything other than a big win. Should probably have scored more goals. We weren't creative enough at times and didn't create enough clear cut chances. Still, it was extremely comfortable.

I gave Danny Welbeck a start, thinking he could notch up some goals, but he ended the game with just one.

Rooney just didn't seem up for this game and so I subbed him in the second-half and put Gerrard behind Welbeck with Wilshere coming into central midfield.

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While I agree with Nobby that Hodgson is a manager of great pedigree who should be respected, the 'number of countries' that he's won a title in is just two, mostly in Sweden (Denmark being the other), and I knew without having to look it up that Italy (where he won nothing at all) was wrong as while he was at Inter, it was during a long period without them winning the title. Sorry if I sound picky.

Edit: Well done Crouchy beating me to it.

Ferdinand's exclusion is slightly surprising but hardly something to bang the table about. He's getting on, he got the chance to be part of the squad as a young member in 1998, and it's only fair that now others should have that chance now with players like him moving aside, as he's clearly not in the first-team plans, and there would be serious questions over squad harmony. In recent years there has been a loud call to dump the 'golden generation' failures and start afresh, so whats the problem with this?

Also read earlier today that aside from the arguments over the older failures needing to be moved aside and giving more of a chance for the youngsters to learn, even as squad players, the fact that a few of the older players selected then got injured isn't a ringing endorsement of relying with the old guard. While a finals tournament isn't the best time to start experimenting, the Ferdinand dropping, injuries and Rooney suspension is at least an opportunity to do things differently, not be so predictable, and even when progressing in previous tournaments we've looked awful most of the time, so we're unlikely to be much worse.

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Also in fairness to Hodgson, Inter had finished 13th and 6th in the seasons before he arrived. They finished 7th and then were 3rd the next season when he left, and throw in a loss on penalties in the UEFA Cup final. Obviously you're just putting some facts into the debate delta, but it's funny how his time at Inter is seen as a failure.